FEATURES

Mahmoud Darwish, Exile's Poet: Critical Essays & The Butterfly's BurdenReviewed by Robert Milo Baldwin Best known as the poet of Palestinian resistance, Mahmoud Darwish has a poetic range far wider than his politics. A book of collected essays explores this exiled poet’s work and life, while a new collection of Darwish’s poetry again shows his incredible resilience and attentiveness to the wonders of life.

From the Backlist: Writings for the Oulipo Ian MonkReviewed by Geoffrey Cruickshank-Hagenbuckle Elected to the Oulipo in 1998, Monk is a master of the constricted form as well as an excellent translator of surrealist and Oulipo texts.

REVIEWS: POETRY

InseparableLewis Warsh The Riot ActGeoffrey Young& glad stone childrenEdmund Berrigan Despite their differences in age, lineage, and poetic temperament, these three poets, and especially these three new collections of their poetry, have much in common, and provide an exemplary overview of what’s happening at the cutting edge of avant-garde contemporary American poetry. Reviewed by Mark Terrill

Modern Life Matthea Harvey Harvey’s surprising, intelligent, and mysterious poetry spurns the personal and turns often to the pun, to the non sequitur, and to mathematical double-meanings. Reviewed by Wendy Vardaman

Dismal Rock Davis McCombs A sandstone formation in Edmonson County, Kentucky serves as the geographical and poetic locus of this impressive, regionally-inspired collection. Reviewed by Kyle Churney

Kino: The Poetry of Nikola Vaptsarov Nikola Vaptsarov Vaptsarov, a Bulgarian poet executed by his country’s fascist government at age thirty-two, strives to balance the personal and the public in his poetry. Reviewed by George Kalamaras

Winners Have Yet to Be Announced: A Song for Donny Hathaway Ed Pavlic Written as a response to the music of singer/songwriter Donny Hathaway, Pavlic’s third volume sketches Hathaway’s life while situating the musician and his work within the Black music continuum. Reviewed by Michael A. Antonucci

The Age of Huts (Compleat) Ron Silliman Some of Silliman’s most innovative early writings are once again in print, offering a clearer picture of his ongoing life poem, Ketjak. Reviewed by David Huntsperger

To and From G.E. Patterson In his newest collection, Patterson takes on the sonnet form, showing that even in its argumentative structure, there is much that cannot be resolved. Reviewed by E. K. Mortenson

Guantanamo Dorothea Dieckmann Guantanamo chronicles the transformation of Rashid, a German who, while vacationing in South Asia, is arrested and shipped to America’s most famous detention facility. Reviewed by Spencer Dew

Hoffman’s Hunger Leon de Winter Protagonist Felix Hoffman thinks about global unrest as he deals with his own myriad physical ailments, all while gorging himself on food and drink. Reviewed by Kevin Carollo.

Hotel Crystal Olivier Rolin Rolin provides a brief glimpse into the life of an unreliable narrator living an unreliable life of the imagination from hotel room to hotel room. Reviewed by Levi Teal

In Milton Lumky Territory Philip K. Dick Before Dick became a successful science fiction writer, he wrote realistic fiction in which characters struggle for the American Dream. Reviewed by Ryder W. Miller

REVIEWS: NONFICTION

The Legend of Colton H. Bryant Alexandra Fuller Fuller turns her keen eye to greed and black gold with the heartbreaking story of a young man who grew up, lived, and suddenly died on the oil patch in western Wyoming. Reviewed by Kevin Carollo

The Wounded Researcher: Research with Soul in Mind Robert D. Romanyshyn Anyone who reads more than a few pages of this book is by default someone interested in doing “re-search,” as Romanyshyn describes “the unfinished business in the soul of the work, the unsaid weight of history in the work that waits to be said.” Reviewed by Joel Weishaus

Wallace Stegner and the American West Philip L. Fradkin An award-winning California journalist takes on the large subject of the iconic Stegner, who grew up on the frontier in the early parts of the century and became one of the first teachers of creative writing in America. Reviewed by Ryder W. Miller

Sacred Sea: A Journey to Lake Baikal Peter Thomson “Yikes!” is evidently an insufficient response to discovering that the deepest lake in the world, known also to be the purest, is undergoing alarming biochemical shifts in response to human activities. Reviewed by Eliza Murphy

American Drama in the Age of Film Zander Brietzke Brietzke comprehensively and concretely parses out the idiomatic values of drama and film to show the former’s continued relevance in modern culture, while honoring the latter. Reviewed by Justin Maxwell

REVIEWS: GRAPHIC NOVELS

A People’s History of American Empire Howard Zinn, Mike Konopacki, and Paul Buhle This graphic novel of Howard Zinn’s seminal A People’s History of the United States updates the information found in the original and features the historian as a narrator and witness to the atrocities committed in the name of American power. Reviewed by Christopher Luna

Doom Patrol: Volumes 1-6Grant Morrison, Richard Case, et al Morrison is one of the most innovative writers of comics, and his idea-crammed virtues and vices can be seen in this superhero pastiche he wrote from 1989 through 1992. Reviewed by Ken Chen